The zone, which Phuntroo belongs to, is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar for the Marathi film audience. On one hand it's a typical college romance, on the other, it's a smart tale of artificial intelligence and human substitutes. The thematic similarity with Spike Jonze's Her, a story about a human falling in love with a spectacularly advanced operating system are obvious, and it can't be a coincidence looking at the turn of events in Phuntroo, but still, Sujay Dahake's film is sufficiently different, and very watchable.

Veera (Deodhar) is a brilliant but eccentric engineering student in a Pune college. He is hopelessly in love with Anaya (Mategaonkar), who only has eyes for Nano (Vaichal), a finalyear student who will do anything to win. Veera comes across Phuntroo, an unfinished project by the late founder of the institute, and decides to complete it. The project itself is about a hologram, and Veera manages to get the results. But the results are not exactly as predicted and Phuntroo seems to possess the ability to bring out the best in Veera, or the worst.

The film works best in the pre-intermission part when we see a version of intelligent and contemporary college life rather than the usual recycled material. Dialogues (Dahake) are consistently well written throughout the film but the philosophy and pseudo science sound a lot better here. The characters refer to anything and everything from Plato to Newton and from Nemade to Naralikar without worrying too much about the capability of the audience to get the context. I have often seen that the texture is far more important in the dialogues than understanding each and every word of it. Phuntroo does it enormously well in the first half.

The second half has a few problems, which can't be rectified by smart talk. First is the nature of Phuntroo. What exactly is the project? Is it a hologram like everyone refers it to be or its just an operating system for a selflearning computer; being represented as a 3D projection. This virtual image automatically makes it look different than Her, even when it's the same thing, more or less. Second problem is the upgrading. Who is upgrading the system? Is it Veera or Phuntroo it(her)self ? In Her, the system moves beyond the individual interaction level and evolves into a universal conscience. Phuntroo has a different agenda of becoming human (A.I.? Pinocchio?), and while we can understand the agenda, we have no clue of how it gets achieved. Pseudo science can't save the day here, and the weak issues get to the surface. The ending is convenient and doesn't make much, or any, sense.

Still, the film is enjoyable, and brings out moral and philosophical, even existential issues, without underlining the obvious. The all time favourite question in literature and films; related to the importance of the creation over its creator (Pygmalion, Ruby Sparks, Ex Machina and others) also makes an appearance at key moments.

I am not a great fan of Sujay Dahake's previous work, the well-received national award winning Shala and the disastrous quasi documentary Aajoba. In my opinion, Phuntroo is easily his best work to date and it shows great promise. The film is technically strong and a lot of thought has gone into the visual aspect of the storytelling. Although the film has scifi elements, it's ideal to look at from the romantic angle. It will help you stay with the film even when science goes for a toss. My advice is to keep your expectations in check, and you are all set to enjoy Phuntroo.

■ You can write to Ganesh Matkari at punemirror.feedback@gmail.com or TWEET@ThePuneMirror

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